After 30 yrs of whitetail and 8 years of elk hunting, my humble opinion is that whitetail outsmart you and elk outrun you. When they hear sounds that indicate the woods ain't what they used to be, the elk move their operations to another area and whitetails hunker down. This is a generality, not a firm rule. Elk will hunker and deer will move on occasion.
Here in AZ, I'm learning the key is when a sound is spooky and when it's not. Before the season, almost nothing is spooky. That changes at nightfall prior to opening day.
Many times I've been posted on a ridge at blackdark waiting for glassing light. Often elk have been audible kicking rocks, whacking horns or breaking sticks 1,000 yards away or more. It's just amazing how well sound travels in that cold, dry, high air before any wind is stirring. Then I ask myself, "If I hear this, what have they heard?" The answer is everything for the last hour, including my sneaking. In the tinder-dry thickets of manzanita and oak at mid-elevation Arizona, it is virtually impossible to move soundlessly at anything over 50 feet per hour. The elk I listen to in in the dark just happen to be out of range and they know it.
It's a game they win almost every time. At least against me ...
